CNPSR Sends Letter to Director Bomar Expressing Concern About NPS's Old Santa Fe Trail Building

NOTE: CNPSR sent this letter to NPS Director Bomar on December 10, 2007. See Director Bomar's response, dated January 10, 2008 by clicking on the "ATTACHMENT" link at the bottom of this page.

VIA EMAIL AND FAX

December 10, 2007

Mary Bomar, Director
National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington DC 20240

Dear Director Bomar:

The Coalition of Retired National Park Service Employees is alarmed over plans of Intermountain Regional Director Mike Snyder to revamp the Old Santa Fe Trail Building in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What he intends is no less than vandalism of a National Historic Landmark.

Built by the CCC in the late 1930s specifically as headquarters for the National Park Service regional office, it rests on property donated by Santa Fe philanthropists to whose estate it will revert if the Park Service abandons it.

The largest adobe office building in the world, the Old Santa Fe Trail Building was conceived and designed as an architectural entity–that is, the interior and exterior inseparable as a single artistic creation.
Thus, aside from its high distinction nationwide as an architectural treasure, it is of great significance in the history of the National Park Service, having served as a regional office from 1939 until the reorganization that abolished the Southwest Region in 1995.

The plan calls for moving ninety employees from offices in the Paisano Building, currently with two years remaining on the lease, into the historic building, thus canceling the lease and yielding funds to be spent elsewhere. To accommodate so many people, the entire interior will be reconfigured, including replacing old walls with many new ones, and perhaps compromising the carrying capacity of the sixty-eight-year-old building.

Most distressing, many of the present furnishings would have to be removed. This includes the artwork, furniture, craftwork, and artifacts uniquely designed for this structure by Hispanic artisans in 1937-38, all elements that led to National Landmark designation. So directly linked are these to national significance that some were created in the building, for the building, and have been never been anywhere else–-e.g. the trastero in the Regional Director’s office, the massive conference room table and chairs, and the large painting of Steve Mather in the lobby. Under the new plan, these works of art would be moved to the Western Archeological Center under the guise of preservation.

These plans, apparently well advanced, have created a wave of outrage throughout the Coalition membership and into the preservation community beyond. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is ready to take up the cause, together with many other preservation, environmental, and political groups. All judge the plans as the destruction of a National Historic Landmark by the very agency most vitally charged with its preservation. Such “adverse effect” to a registered property by a “federal undertaking” clearly comes within the purview of Sec. 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. We presume the Regional Director is aware of his responsibility under this and other environmental laws.

Before this storm spreads further and becomes more vocal, we urge you to take immediate steps the cancel the Regional Director’s plans.

Sincerely,

J. W. “Bill” Wade
Chair, Executive Council

cc:
Regional Director, Intermountain Region
New Mexico State Historic Preservation Officer
Director, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation